It's the style of the game. If it didn't have that look then it wouldn't be Warcraft. I'm sure they can make it look a little more 'mature' but they'd have to be careful since they could well ruin the experience for a lot of people.

It is fine(ish) the way it is. The more realistic people make MMO's the more clunky they feel. Warcraft game play is very smooth, if you start adding in intensive realistic graphics then very few people are going to be able to utilize them as they don't have/want the hardware to pull it off. Don't get me wrong, I think it can be improved to find a happy medium without effecting game play, but it would be a fine line.

It's also what has made it age so well, I'd wager that if they'd gone for a more "realistic" art style, that it would look 10 times more shit than it does now after 10 years.

Exactly. These graphics are timeless, if you ask me.

The graphics are a huge part of what makes WoW appealing to me. In comparison, when I played Rift with it's mighty "realistic" graphics, I found it to be extremely depressing. I mean, even the grass color was depressing >_>

And even though it's reached new heights, I rather like the restless nights. It makes me wonder, makes me think there's more to this, I'm on the brink. It's not the fear of what's beyond, it's just that I might not respond! I have an interest, almost craving, would I like to get to far in?!

As far as I'm concerned, no, the graphic style of the game is just fine the way it is. It's a game and it doesn't have to look like reality and it's also from 12 years and up, "too childy" is not what I'd call it

Hell no. It has unique art-style, it isn't just ER MA GERD, we have ultra-hyper-super-realistic graphics but no content MMO no. 335. This style belongs to WoW, and if they changed it, i would maybe quit, depending on how drastic the chang would be. I can't understand why someone would want to change into "realistic" graphics, when those will be obsolete in 2 years, whereas "cartoonish" WoW style can last for another 10 years.

I understand seeing some of the more realistic fan art that it gives an urge to see the game like that, but for me, that would not work, it's charm is the way the graphics are. However the updated models, still in the same style, yet far more detailed are incredible.

We would not be playing WoW now in the numbers we are we're it not for the art style it has. If it had gone for realism, well, look at how rough KotOR is now. That's the graphical fidelity of the time WoW was conceived.

Apart from the character models the game looks pretty spiffy now. I don't think it would had they opted for a realistic style (they never had in previous or later games, so the whole topic is kind of mute)

If anything, I feel more games should adopt a WoW-esque graphics style. It's colourful and playful and something I *want* to look at on a near-daily basis. Realistic-looking games just look... boring, for the most part.
Besides, Warcraft has been cartoony ever since its inception, and there's absolutely no reason to change it now.